Council's Finance Director has left

Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council, says: "Lisa Quinn, Director of Finance and Business Services, left the Council's employment on Friday, February 15, by mutual agreement. This follows the departure of two senior managers during December.

"Arrangements are already in place to cover her role, while the Council continues with the planned introduction of a new management framework, which will be less opaque, more accountable and effective and less costly.

"I would like to thank Lisa for her hard work and commitment to the job during her time at Cheshire East and I wish her well for the future."

What's going on?

Audlem Online adds: Lisa Quinn's suspension was announced some months ago and featured in the last issue of Private Eye in its Rotten Boroughs section. As Cheshire East has appeared a number of times in that investigative column recently, it may be worth regular followers of the council ordering a copy of Private Eye at Williams' newsagents. It costs just £1.50 each fortnight.

For those that missed the last issue, we bring you the relevant section, as we promised on the Chatbox a week or so ago. Private Eye said:

Off With The Heads

Senior officers' incompetence at Cheshire East Council has given councillors the perfect excuse... to give them all the chop. All managerial posts have been deleted and staff will have to reapply for whatever jobs remain after a major "reorganisation".

The bloodbath follows a scandal in which officers spent £800,000 on building a waste transfer station for which they did not have planning permission and selected a contractor without putting the job out to tender. Director of finance Lisa Quinn has been suspended; deputy chief executive John Nicholson and borough solicitor Caroline Elwood left before Christmas.

Meanwhile the Information Commissioner has ruled that the authority will have to make public an internal report on another project which has the smell of fish about it. Last June Private Eye 1315 reported on the council's joint project with Bure Valley Adventures Ltd to build an adventure park within historic Tatton Park which the council leases from the National trust. Opponents asked to see the report after discovering via Freedom of Information that the council had set aside £240,000 to support the company's planning application with surveys showing the project was viable. Very even handed!

The information Commissioner says the two schemes are "comparable initiatives involving significant expenditure". As in the case of the Lyme Green waste transfer site, he says, "there does not appear to be evidence that the council conducted a procurement exercise in selecting a company to deliver an adventure park at Tatton". Oh dear!

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